Keep the Faith

[Icy Gull]

I will when we actually ****ing sign a striker.

I am personally astounded that Bloom cannot see that this is the biggest problem the team has had since we arrived at the Amex FIVE years ago. When we did have a decent striker it made a massive difference. He took us up the table to 4th and despite a long term injury helped us into the playoffs with a much weakened side the next season. How hard is it to see that at least one decent striker is 100% essential to getting out of this division? Young kids, old men and loanees are not the answer and nor are League One strikers. Hemed I accept was a gamble worth taking but he really is useless most of the time, no pace no strikers instinct and not up to the level we need.

Just get a fecking decent striker PLEASE

 

[Hotchilidog]

I am personally astounded that Bloom cannot see that this is the biggest problem the team has had since we arrived at the Amex FIVE years ago. When we did have a decent striker it made a massive difference. He took us up the table to 4th and despite a long term injury helped us into the playoffs with a much weakened side the next season. How hard is it to see that at least one decent striker is 100% essential to getting out of this division? Young kids, old men and loanees are not the answer and nor are League One strikers. Hemed I accept was a gamble worth taking but he really is useless most of the time, no pace no strikers instinct and not up to the level we need.

Just get a fecking decent striker PLEASE

I would say the £15million or so worth bids we have on the table for two players suggests that Bloom does indeed see this as a problem.

Although I agree with urgent desire to get at least one of these deals (or a mystery one) done ASAP!

 

[portlock seagull]

I would say the £15million or so worth bids we have on the table for two players suggests that Bloom does indeed see this as a problem.

Although I agree with urgent desire to get at least one of these deals (or a mystery one) done ASAP!

I haven't seen that table? Is it in Furniture Land?

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Anyone else watched the Seagulls Player highlights (11 mins) and concluded that we weren't particularly awful last night?

Included highlights were moments of quality from Albion players (e.g. Hemed, Knockeart, Stephens) and a sustained period of Albion pressure at 0-1 that created several very dangerous threats to the Rotherham goal.

The two Rotherham goals came from individual errors. The first a slip on a wet pitch. The second an appropriate risk taken that didn't pay off. Apart from those two goals Rotherham had nothing else particularly close.

This Albion team that we thought was a very good one a couple of months ago still is.

I have not watched the highlights, but if they genuinely give that impression, then the editting is VERY misleading.

Make no mistake, Rotherham 100% deserved to win that game. They looked bigger, stronger, quicker, and played with more desire and more imagination. 2-0 does not flatter them in the slightest. It ought to have been more than that by half time.

Zamora won us a measure of control in the first 20 minutes of the second half, but was personally guilty of wasting two very presentable situations.

 

[Icy Gull]

I would say the £15million or so worth bids we have on the table for two players suggests that Bloom does indeed see this as a problem.

Although I agree with urgent desire to get at least one of these deals (or a mystery one) done ASAP!

Bolted and stable door come to mind. If we'd done the business in the summer we would probably still be sitting on top of the table.....or did TB only recently decide to REALLY go for it?

We have desperately missed a decent striker all season, which is why we struggle to win games convincingly, if we had some players could have be rested for 20 or 30 mins, instead of the backs to the wall 80th to 96th minute scenarios we have had virtually everytime we are winning a game.

 

[Hotchilidog]

Bolted and stable door come to mind. If we'd done the business in the summer we could be sitting on top of the table.....

The business we did in the summer did get us to the top of the table....

 

[Icy Gull]

The business we did in the summer did get us to the top of the table....

Exactly but once again we went down the cheaper striker route, a mistake we've made many times since we've been at the Amex. If there was 15 million available to spend on strikers back in the summer, why didn't we do it then? Genuine question.

 

[Hotchilidog]

Exactly but once again we went down the cheaper striker route, a mistake we've made many times since we've been at the Amex. If there was 15 million available to spend on strikers back in the summer, why didn't we do it then? Genuine question.

Pretty good question actually... Although we did bring in Hemed and Zamora, both of whom were successful initially. If I were to offer an opinion it is that i'm not entirely sure we expected to be at the top and pushing for automatic promotion and thus spent according to a mid-table, playoff expectation level.

I'd suggest the money is now available A: because automatic promotion is a possibility B: The QPR FFP decision has now given Tony the push he needed to do what he probably wanted to do all along and splash out.

All that said, we did do good business in the summer and for 21 games it paid off. The wheels are currently coming off the promotion bandwagon but it seems to me the club are keen to pt them back on with the aid of a big signing or two. I guess we'll see at the end of the window now, as frustratingly it looks like we shall have to wait again for any of the big business to get done. I would be surprised, not too mention extremely disappointed if we do not strengthen the striking dept (either one of the south americans or a Plan C player).

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lense]

I have not watched the highlights, but if they genuinely give that impression, then the editting is VERY misleading.

I have just watched them.. and they are misleading vs. the over-whelming evidence of what you clearly watched, I listened to, and the post match interviews say.. BUT from a chances perspective, we appeared to create by far the better chances that an in-form striker/midfielder would/should have taken - is that fair from what you saw? If that's the case I feel marginally better - don't want to pretend the result was wrong, or we were unlucky, but if we are creating opportunities like that when playing so poorly, I will hang onto that crumb of comfort in this, the Keep The Faith Thread!!

 

[Bold Seagull]

After 26 games we are better off than any previous season in the Championship Amex era:

2012 12th 38pts
2013 8th 40pts
2014 7th 39pts
2015 19th 26pts
2016 6th 44pts


2013 our final 20 games delivered 35 pts. W9 D8 L3.

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lense]

Exactly but once again we went down the cheaper striker route, a mistake we've made many times since we've been at the Amex. If there was 15 million available to spend on strikers back in the summer, why didn't we do it then? Genuine question.

Because we couldn't be sure that we would have started so well.. the perspective has changed given that we have started so well, and so the gamble and risk of spending that money and paying those wages is lessened. That's what was meant about strengthening from a position of strength. All the financial caveats are still there, but the chances of them being covered by a premier league windfall are greater than they were.. despite our current form!!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Exactly but once again we went down the cheaper striker route, a mistake we've made many times since we've been at the Amex. If there was 15 million available to spend on strikers back in the summer, why didn't we do it then? Genuine question.

I'm not sure when the financial year runs, but the figures had to be in by December. It may be that the summer transfer window was in the old FFP limits. El Presidente will know.

 

[Phat Baz 68]

Not fair. we've made 3 signings already - more than most - people are forgetting that. It's not as simple as it sounds to get the right players - keep the faith positive thread amongst the negativity we are feeling

One signing has been here a week already and only has 3 left Ridgewell hardly worth getting him in really hasn't done much has it

 

[NooBHA]

Everyone keep on about this magic goal scorer we need or are going to get but why? We have proven goalscorers in our squad who have scored many goals at this and higher levels and will do again. What we need to do is stop conceding goals and with 2 former defenders as manager and assistant they should have sorted things out and imparting their knowledge on to our players. Kayal and Stephens have been sussed out by the opposition managers and are not now getting the support from around them The full backs are weak and thus leaving the central defenders and goal keeper exposed this in turn means that the supply to the wide men and then the strikers is poor. If we can shore up the back get the ball forward to Kayal and Stephens to move it on to Knockheart and Murphy to get crosses into the strikers as per September and early October we will soon get back on track but until that happens we will struggle.


How many players can we pay wages to? We need to ship out those that are considered by CH as not good enough and unlikely to get in the team and bring in a left back, possibly even another right back and an organizer for the midfield like Derby, Middlesbro and Burnley have.

I agree with another poster that this is a very good post; however, it is difficult to get people to take shit off your hands. It is not that easy to get rid of players currently under contract who aint good enough for other people to want them. Their Agents tell them just to sit tight until their contracts are due up and then they schlep them around every club in the country 6 months before their contracts are up

 

[goldstone]

I agree. All is by no means lost. We're still in the damn playoff positions. With players still to come back from injury, players still to get back to full fitness (KLL, Baldock), new signings getting used to our style of play, and more signings (hopefully) to come, we could well still be fighting for one of the auto promotion spots come the end of the season. And surely all of our defensive errors for this season and next are now out of our system!

 

[Guinness Boy]

I agree with another poster that this is a very good post; however, it is difficult to get people to take shit off your hands. It is not that easy to get rid of players currently under contract who aint good enough for other people to want them. Their Agents tell them just to sit tight until their contracts are due up and then they schlep them around every club in the country 6 months before their contracts are up

Absolutely agree on getting rid of weak players. You only need to remember Kemy Agustein. Sat tight collecting his pay packet and the only difference he made was flooding twitter with narcissistic photos and alledgedly being a bad influence on certain other players. No one's even taken him now.

JFC has been unloaded, Ince and Crofts we need as cover. That leaves Chicksen who couldn't even get in to the team when he was the only specialist left back fit and Holla who has gone down hill faster than a San Fransisco tram with faulty brakes. No one's going to to touch them are they? Loans to League 2 at best, which would cover a fraction of wages

 

[atomised]

One signing has been here a week already and only has 3 left Ridgewell hardly worth getting him in really hasn't done much has it

4 weeks left!

 

[Sheebo]

One signing has been here a week already and only has 3 left Ridgewell hardly worth getting him in really hasn't done much has it

Not seen him yet but a left footed left back was exactly what we needed on a short loan..?

 

[Seagull58]

I hope the players aren't as negative about the next 20 games as some of our fans.

Time will tell.

 

[BensGrandad]

Question - when does BG sleep

2am - 3am - 4am posts

Is he in Australia

I live in Haywards Heath we usually go to bed about 10pm and I read a paper or two then fall asleep. I usually wake up about 1.30 raid the fridge for coca cola and chocolate then go and spend some time on NSC or do a couple of Sudokos , then back to bed until about 8am is that ok with you.